Nathan Johnson | 1986 Flinn Scholar
in conversation with Jake Batsell | 1992 Flinn Scholar
On how the Flinn Scholarship can enhance a focus—or enable extraordinary exploration
A member of the inaugural Class of 1986 Flinn Scholars, Nathan Johnson was elected to the Texas State Senate in November 2018 to represent District 16, comprising all or portions of 10 cities in the northern part of Dallas County. He practices law at Thompson & Knight as counsel in the firm’s Trial Practice Group in Dallas. Johnson, who graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in physics and earned a law degree at the University of Texas at Austin, also trained as a pianist and has composed music for the classical concert stage. During a hiatus from practicing law, he composed the score for nearly seventy television episodes and five films for the hit anime series Dragon Ball Z.
Class of 1992 Flinn Scholar Jake Batsell is an associate professor of journalism at Southern Methodist University. The author of Engaged Journalism: Connecting with Digitally Empowered News Audiences, he was a reporter for the Seattle Times and Dallas Morning News before joining SMU in 2008. Batsell is a graduate of Arizona State University and earned a master’s degree in government at the University of Texas at Austin.